Around the league -- Offseason edition

[Mavrelous]

Yes, he played through many injuries as Mavs, what good has he gotten from that?

Legacy? I mean he could've given up in the beginning on 23/24 season when Kyrie and Lively were down and not play through injuries, had he done that the team wouldn't have been able to make the late season push and go to the finals, imagine where he'd be if he didn't go to the finals and what the narrative around him would be.

Portland at home, and Wolves w/o Ant are winnable games, they already lost one, we'll see what happens against the Wolves.

I would say that Lakers showed quite a lot in those 3 games without half a team, playing without important players might even helped them on long run, because others got more opportunities and took advantage of it. Anyway, Kidd should look at what JJ is doing with theoretically far worse roster.

You'd be singing a different tune if Reaves shot didn't hit, the team collapsed again late and gave up 20 points lead against a Wolves team w/o a lead guard.
I don't see that they are learning much TBH, they are improvising around Reaves heliocentric play, which will be similar to Luka later on.
The Ayton/Luka 2 man game hasn't developed, it looked behind against the Warriors, and the defense is still bad.
One bright spot is that Reves/Ayton look like a good pairing, which means you'll have 2 good pairs for Luka On/Reaves Off/ Hayes On and Luka off/Reaves On/Ayton On.
Laravia looks like what you would have hoped Knecht should become, bad on ball defense, which is a huge ? fit wise next to Luka.

[Bob8]

Legacy? I mean he could've given up in the beginning on 23/24 season when Kyrie and Lively were down and not play through injuries, had he done that the team wouldn't have been able to make the late season push and go to the finals, imagine where he'd be if he didn't go to the finals and what the narrative around him would be.

Portland at home, and Wolves w/o Ant are winnable games, they already lost one, we'll see what happens against the Wolves.

I would say that Lakers showed quite a lot in those 3 games without half a team, playing without important players might even helped them on long run, because others got more opportunities and took advantage of it. Anyway, Kidd should look at what JJ is doing with theoretically far worse roster.

You'd be singing a different tune if Reaves shot didn't hit, the team collapsed again late and gave up 20 points lead against a Wolves team w/o a lead guard.
I don't see that they are learning much TBH, they are improvising around Reaves heliocentric play, which will be similar to Luka later on.
The Ayton/Luka 2 man game hasn't developed, it looked behind against the Warriors, and the defense is still bad.
One bright spot is that Reves/Ayton look like a good pairing, which means you'll have 2 good pairs for Luka On/Reaves Off/ Hayes On and Luka off/Reaves On/Ayton On.
Laravia looks like what you would have hoped Knecht should become, bad on ball defense, which is a huge ? fit wise next to Luka.

It's not about last shot. Lakers were much better team until last 5 minutes, yes Wolves played without Ant, but Lakers were missing Luka, Lebron, Smart and Vincent and Reaves having disastrous shooting night before last shot, but they still played very good basketball until last 5 minutes. Playing good basketball with so many important players missing is the hard part, and might be crucial in 82 games season.

All new additions look good. And they got them extremely cheap. I don't think Laravia is bad on ball D, he's for sure not POA defender but they brought Smart for that. He's much better offensive player than DFS for sure. They have 2 expiring contracts, Kleber and Vincent, so they can make some upgrades, if team looks ready to compete in February. Series against Wolves would have look a lot different, if they had Ayton and Smart last year.

[Mavrelous]

It's not about last shot. Lakers were much better team until last 5 minutes, yes Wolves played without Ant, but Lakers were missing Luka, Lebron, Smart and Vincent and Reaves having disastrous shooting night before last shot, but they still played very good basketball until last 5 minutes. Playing good basketball with so many important players missing is the hard part, and might be crucial in 82 games season.

All new additions look good. And they got them extremely cheap. I don't think Laravia is bad on ball D, he's for sure not POA defender but they brought Smart for that. He's much better offensive player than DFS for sure. They have 2 expiring contracts, Kleber and Vincent, so they can make some upgrades, if team looks ready to compete in February. Series against Wolves would have look a lot different, if they had Ayton and Smart last year.

We'll see...
I'm not as optimistic as you for this year, I think the all wings lineup last year was much better (Luka/Reaves/DFS/LeBron/Rui), but they fell short due to bad matchup combined with Luka being sick and Reaves being inexplicably off his game, and they lacked any depth, I don't think Ayton and Laravia fill DFS void, Smart is the wild card and he may save their season, he looked great against the Wolves few games ago, JJ has lots of blame also for last year series.
My hope is that they target POA defender, wing defender and backup C who is a similar to Lively (Jarret Allen for example), and build around Reaves and Luke, I'd be disappointed if they went all in for Giannis.

[Bob8]

It's not about last shot. Lakers were much better team until last 5 minutes, yes Wolves played without Ant, but Lakers were missing Luka, Lebron, Smart and Vincent and Reaves having disastrous shooting night before last shot, but they still played very good basketball until last 5 minutes. Playing good basketball with so many important players missing is the hard part, and might be crucial in 82 games season.

All new additions look good. And they got them extremely cheap. I don't think Laravia is bad on ball D, he's for sure not POA defender but they brought Smart for that. He's much better offensive player than DFS for sure. They have 2 expiring contracts, Kleber and Vincent, so they can make some upgrades, if team looks ready to compete in February. Series against Wolves would have look a lot different, if they had Ayton and Smart last year.

We'll see...
I'm not as optimistic as you for this year, I think the all wings lineup last year was much better (Luka/Reaves/DFS/LeBron/Rui), but they fell short due to bad matchup combined with Luka being sick and Reaves being inexplicably off his game, and they lacked any depth, I don't think Ayton and Laravia fill DFS void, Smart is the wild card and he may save their season, he looked great against the Wolves few games ago, JJ has lots of blame also for last year series.
My hope is that they target POA defender, wing defender and backup C who is a similar to Lively (Jarret Allen for example), and build around Reaves and Luke, I'd be disappointed if they went all in for Giannis.

You can't play playoffs with 0 rim protection and with bad rebounders. DFS is extremely overrated by Mavs fans and is getting old. He averaged 6/4 with 53 TS% in playoffs. Sure his D is good, but his scoring ability is too weak to be game changer for title contenders. Teams just leave him wide open.

Ayton gives you 16/10 easily and some D, while Laravia gives you much better offense. Smart looked good in games he played. I'm sure they can use expiring contracts for some wing D, if they like what they see in February. I agree that team with 41 years old, 52 mio contract player is difficult to go all the way, but we're talking about LeBron so who knows, maybe he has still 1 good season in him.

Btw. Knecht can't hit 3 at the moment, but he's much better in attacking rim this year. If he gets his 3-pointer back...

[Mavrelous]

It's not about last shot. Lakers were much better team until last 5 minutes, yes Wolves played without Ant, but Lakers were missing Luka, Lebron, Smart and Vincent and Reaves having disastrous shooting night before last shot, but they still played very good basketball until last 5 minutes. Playing good basketball with so many important players missing is the hard part, and might be crucial in 82 games season.

All new additions look good. And they got them extremely cheap. I don't think Laravia is bad on ball D, he's for sure not POA defender but they brought Smart for that. He's much better offensive player than DFS for sure. They have 2 expiring contracts, Kleber and Vincent, so they can make some upgrades, if team looks ready to compete in February. Series against Wolves would have look a lot different, if they had Ayton and Smart last year.

We'll see...
I'm not as optimistic as you for this year, I think the all wings lineup last year was much better (Luka/Reaves/DFS/LeBron/Rui), but they fell short due to bad matchup combined with Luka being sick and Reaves being inexplicably off his game, and they lacked any depth, I don't think Ayton and Laravia fill DFS void, Smart is the wild card and he may save their season, he looked great against the Wolves few games ago, JJ has lots of blame also for last year series.
My hope is that they target POA defender, wing defender and backup C who is a similar to Lively (Jarret Allen for example), and build around Reaves and Luke, I'd be disappointed if they went all in for Giannis.

You can't play playoffs with 0 rim protection and with bad rebounders. DFS is extremely overrated by Mavs fans and is getting old. He averaged 6/4 with 53 TS% in playoffs. Sure his D is good, but his scoring ability is too weak to be game changer for title contenders. Teams just leave him wide open.

Ayton gives you 16/10 easily and some D, while Laravia gives you much better offense. Smart looked good in games he played. I'm sure they can use expiring contracts for some wing D, if they like what they see in February. I agree that team with 41 years old, 52 mio contract player is difficult to go all the way, but we're talking about LeBron so who knows, maybe he has still 1 good season in him.

DFS will give you 6/4 but have defender attached to him at the 3 pt line and double digit on/off, Ayton will give you 16/10 and miss crucial rebounds and have negative impact.
Luka with Kyrie with bad role players missed the PO, with a rookie center and 2 guys that the league gave up on went to the finals, if the 7 years taught us anything, it's the value of role players next to Luka.
Same with Giannis, who was bad with Lillard and BroLo, despite the numbers and looks much better with defenders and shooters around him.

[Bob8]

We'll see...
I'm not as optimistic as you for this year, I think the all wings lineup last year was much better (Luka/Reaves/DFS/LeBron/Rui), but they fell short due to bad matchup combined with Luka being sick and Reaves being inexplicably off his game, and they lacked any depth, I don't think Ayton and Laravia fill DFS void, Smart is the wild card and he may save their season, he looked great against the Wolves few games ago, JJ has lots of blame also for last year series.
My hope is that they target POA defender, wing defender and backup C who is a similar to Lively (Jarret Allen for example), and build around Reaves and Luke, I'd be disappointed if they went all in for Giannis.

You can't play playoffs with 0 rim protection and with bad rebounders. DFS is extremely overrated by Mavs fans and is getting old. He averaged 6/4 with 53 TS% in playoffs. Sure his D is good, but his scoring ability is too weak to be game changer for title contenders. Teams just leave him wide open.

Ayton gives you 16/10 easily and some D, while Laravia gives you much better offense. Smart looked good in games he played. I'm sure they can use expiring contracts for some wing D, if they like what they see in February. I agree that team with 41 years old, 52 mio contract player is difficult to go all the way, but we're talking about LeBron so who knows, maybe he has still 1 good season in him.

DFS will give you 6/4 but have defender attached to him at the 3 pt line and double digit on/off, Ayton will give you 16/10 and miss crucial rebounds and have negative impact.
Luka with Kyrie with bad role players missed the PO, with a rookie center and 2 guys that the league gave up on went to the finals, if the 7 years taught us anything, it's the value of role players next to Luka.
Same with Giannis, who was bad with Lillard and BroLo, despite the numbers and looks much better with defenders and shooters around him.

Nobody is defending DFS anymore. In small ball lineups DFS is irreplaceable, not in lineups with C. Even if DFS stayed, JJ would have played Luka/AR/LeBron/Rui/Ayton and then you have 2 good defenders Smart and Vando off the bench. It would be great to have him, but I for sure prefer Ayton+Laravia. And btw DFS had ankle surgery.

[41Dirk41]

Lakers will not win at all this year but at least they are a PO team... Not so bad.

[Super Cooper]

DFS is spent. I have no idea why he signed with HOU given their young wing studs.

[Darren]

Grimes, VJ and Maxey are balling. This makes me wonder if we're better off rebuild completely.

[41Dirk41]

DFS is spent. I have no idea why he signed with HOU given their young wing studs.

KD always liked DFS.

[Super Cooper]

Grimes, VJ and Maxey are balling. This makes me wonder if we're better off rebuild completely.

I'm still pissed about Grimes. Lawd, could we use him at now. Instead we have a washed up Martin with a huge 3 year deal. Low key, you could argue that trade was more lopsided than the Luka/AD trade.